I'd been basically in labor for a week. The contractions would get very intense, regular and close together (two minutes apart), but they just were not changing my cervix any. They'd subside after a few hours only to begin again several hours later. Finally, my doctor had me go in to be induced two days before my due date.

I was started on Pitocin at 1:45 p.m. and was officially in labor at 3 p.m. Then around 4:30 p.m., the contractions started to taper off again. They kept increasing the Pitocin and got the contractions full blown and regular again (two minutes apart) by 8:30 p.m. Then at 9:15 p.m., they tapered off again, but I was finally 2 centimeters dilated!

Around 10:30 p.m., with no more change to my cervix, the doctor decided to stop the Pitocin and give me prostaglandin overnight (to soften my cervix) and start the Pitocin back up at 6 a.m. At 11:30 p.m., I'd gotten the prostaglandin suppository and had been given a sleeping pill to help me relax and get some rest. I settled in to try to get some sleep in preparation for the morning.

Around midnight, something felt different. I wasn't sure what, but I felt like things had changed. Suddenly, at 12:30 a.m., I got contractions so painful that I asked the nurse to start some pain medication. From then on, I was so out of it from the mix of pain medications and the sleeping pill that I hardly knew what was going on.

Around 5:45 a.m., the nurse suggested I get up to wash my face, etc. before she started the Pitocin again. Even with the contractions I'd been having for the last few hours, I was only to about 3 centimeters. I suddenly started begging for more pain medications, as the contractions were suddenly unbearable. My husband took one look at my face and told the nurse to call the doctor. He knew that look from last time and last time it was 10 minutes from that look to the baby's birth. The nurse was skeptical, but agreed to check me. I was barely 5 centimeters, but the instant she took her gloves off, I had to push! And my husband could see the head!

Needless to say, the doctor didn't make it. My husband and the nurse were running around the room throwing things out of the way, yelling for more nurses to come in, dumping antibacterial liquid all over the place, and with about three half pushes (I was trying NOT to push like I was being told!), my baby was born in about two minutes!